End of School Year Thoughts

Just as we are trying to settle here permanently, I was caught off guard with having to say goodbyes again. Since Tobey is switching to our neighborhood school this fall, we are actually saying some goodbyes to his current school this year, the school we ended up at from living at the apartment.

Not so with Eli's school. At Eli's "graduation", I saw people hugging and giving presents. Some families had sent multiple kids to the preschool and were truly saying goodbye "forever". I kind of forgot about the finality of the end of year thing because 1) just 2 weeks ago we gave big presents to his teachers for teacher appreciation and 2) in 2 weeks, Eli will be back for the summer fun program and 3) he will be back for Pre-K next year. He will still see his old teachers every day on his way to seeing his new. So Eli's graduation party for me was just a fun event of seeing Eli in a hat and spiffy clothes and hearing what fun observations the teachers had to say about him this year.

So when it came to Tobey's end of year, I am surprised (and yet not) to find myself all nostalgic about his kindergarten class. Not only is it because we are moving on to a new school next year but I think also because we came to kindergarten in a slightly fragile state, still in transition from our move, desperately wanting to find some kind of community. I found it in kindergarten, all of us parents sending off kids to their first big school experience, chatting with the moms (usually) who picked up kids at the classroom, discovering that Tobey had a specific group of friends, and then having playdates with them after school. It was a nice island in our sea of moving and transition so it meant a lot to me to know people that I would see and that would see me just about every day.

Now that it's the last day of school, I'm a little verklempt to have just written our thank you card to Tobey's teacher. It was a great comfort to me to find Tobey in good hands with some kind of stability in our transition year. Both the end of year performance in the classroom and the end of year party at a classmate's house had a very warm and fond atmosphere for me, the very kind you would find at the end of high school and college, year long friends in a shared experience, all happy to be done, all saying goodbyes. Because for us it really is a kind of goodbye, I am a little sad to think that next year the other kids will all see each other again but we won't.

It's a little mushy of me to think so -- I mean, the town is not THAT big and we have run into classmates while getting ice cream in town or shopping at the local grocery store. And I'm sure if Tobey does a sport or a class through the town community center, he will see many of them again. We're already starting to make summer playdates, hoping to keep in touch with his closest of friends for as long as those (and my) friendships will go without daily acquaintance. But still, it's a bit of a goodbye.

I'm sure some of the emotion comes from saying goodbye to the kindergarten friends without knowing what 1st grade friends he will make yet. And Tobey knows he is going to the new school and I'm staying upbeat about seeing his good friends over the summer. I don't know if almost 6 year olds, especially Tobey, are capable of feeling nostalgic or not so I hope my nostalgia doesn't spill over to make him sad. Because I'm hoping that his start in 1st grade in his new school will be the start to a year as fond to me as kindergarten at the old school was.